


His Arrival

by PetraMysticaCLXV



Series: Hermit!Dream AU [1]
Category: Dream SMP - Fandom, Hermitcraft RPF, Minecraft (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Author is a Clay | Dream Apologist (Video Blogging RPF), Blood and Gore, Clay | Dream Needs a Hug (Video Blogging RPF), Dreamon Theory, Gen, Hermitcraft crossover, Hurt/Comfort, I just write these kind of things, Implied/Referenced Torture, Prisoner Clay | Dream (Video Blogging RPF), Temporary Character Death, Watcher Charles | Grian, actually not, not beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-11
Updated: 2021-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-17 20:13:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 8,715
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29356263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PetraMysticaCLXV/pseuds/PetraMysticaCLXV
Summary: For the months that Sam Nook has been serving the Pandora’s Box as its Warden.In the first month, he has gotten used to Dream’s teasing.At the second, Sam Nook becomes familiar with the twitch movements of the prisoner, as the view of rotten potatoes in the corner of the obsidian box.By the third,  Dream stopped, the warden of the Pandora’s Box worries a little.But by fourth, he came back, screaming at the lava until his voice is gone. Sam doesn’t take note of the cries, because for him it was lies, Tommy accounted for it, admitting how horrid Dream is when the boy was exiled.When the fifth month came, Dream came to a final stop, shivering at the side, in the middle of the water block and the lava falls, by this month too, Sam Nook took breaks every now and then to give more effort to the Hotel that Tommy is making.Many more months came.Until Dream disappears, but the world still continues to go on. And it made an uproar.
Series: Hermit!Dream AU [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2156403
Comments: 24
Kudos: 419





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Author does not mean to cross any lines!!!
> 
> Also based in this post of mine: https://petramysticaclxv.tumblr.com/post/642827794828673024/prisonerdream-aftermath-hc-x-dsmp-idea-dream

Dream woke up with a silent gasp, then he is blinded by the light, instinctively he pulls up the nearest cloth he touches which is the blanket. _“Cloth?”_ he thought, he remembers the lack of fabric inside the obsidian box. The admin shivers at a foreign but familiar touch.

“Dream?” the voice sounded so squeaky, a hint of an accent, _“Is that my name?”_ he thinks, then he remembers that is really his name, he also remembers the bad touches, the heat so hot it burns. The touch suddenly goes away, _like a dream_. A savory scent wafted to his senses,

“Dream, you need to eat,” the squeaky voice remarks,

“Grian, I think you we should let him do it himself,” another voice foreign and firm,

“Maybe we should let him be,” another unknown voice, high pitch but lower than that of the one named “Grian”, a thumping of footsteps began to fade away, Dream can feel the harshness of the light become weaker, he can hear the whispers of the leaving group assuring that nothing will spawn, and finally he is left alone.

* * *

The highway between Xisuma’s and Keralis’ base is decidedly a better place to converse for the Secret Base club. Grian left a camera in Impulse’s secret speakeasy to make sure Dream won’t get hurt inside.

“Grian, we should tell X immediately,” Impulse says, spotting the worry lined on the blond’s face. Grian nods, he has become restless and panicked since he saw the Dream SMP’s admin shivering while he’s tunneling under Keralis’ base, worse for wear and the dulled eyes of the admin almost pulling the watcher back in his younger days in the hands of a real nightmare.

“You should go tell X,” Grian turns to Impulse, “I’ll guard Dream,”,

“ _I_ will guard Dream, you go gather some things for the guy,” the frown in Bdub’s face is obvious, “I hear you like tailoring, I suppose you have some comfy wears in your base,”,

Impulse taps the watcher’s shoulder, nodding at him as he opened his elytra to fly to the nearby Hermitcraft Admin’s base. Bdubs gives a reassuring nod to Grian, as the watcher flies to the opposite direction where his mansion is standing, the last hermit leaves making a journey to the secret speakeasy where Dream is.

Bdubs found Dream curled on one of the turtle beds where they lay him. The beetroot soup halved, thankfully so. The former NHO member picks a seat by the bar, out from Dream’s sight, as he tries to observe their visitor. It was Bdubs who found Dream second, a frozen Grian looming in front of a knocked out Dream, it was also Bdubs who decided that Impulse’s speakeasy is the nearest most comfortable place to the two, carrying the admin into it while the watcher slowly followed them. Bdubs felt how painfully light Dream is under the orange jumper.

The hermit turns to the entrance of the speakeasy, spotting Impulse now with one of their own Admins, Tango instead of the Head Admin Xisuma. Bdubs warns them a “Be Quite” sign, as the two nodded at him.

“Xisuma was busy with his brewery so I went to Tango instead,” Impulse whispers,

“Where is he?” Tango asks with a quiet voice, struggling to keep himself serious because of the number of turtle beds in the speakeasy all with Keralis’ heads, Bdubs points them to where Dream is, and Tango finally found himself serious, he knows of Dream’s reputation in tournaments, a rival of Technoblade’s, the hermits would often hear awe from Jevin as the slime hermit praises the man’s speedrunning techniques, how proud Grian is when he was able to jump on the man in a PvP situation, even watched him dominate the championships last year. Tango wonders how Dream became like that.

“We don’t know, we just saw him like that,” Bdubs replies, “It’s worse for Grian, when he saw Dream, I mean,”,

“What do you mean?” Impulse asks,

“I don’t know, but I just had a strong feeling that I must protect them,” the NHO hermit answers.

* * *

Dream took a sip or two from the bowl, he feels the code, this is not familiar, he can also sense a presence approaching, _“Don’t do anything bad”_ , he sets the bowl back to where he picked it up, covering more of himself with the lime cloth, he feels fondness with the color. The presence is positively now with him in the room, he freezes. The presence does not near him, whoever it is they are just looming there. Another two came, and Dream struggles to hear whatever they are saying, stuck in an agonizing fear, he realizes the light has become softer, and Dream turns to the folks far from him. _“Are they also afraid of me,”_ Dream thinks, _“I was a bad person”,_ He sees one with a red bandanna on his forehead, on with a black t-shirt, and the last with a red vest his hunch telling that this man can also touch the code, an admin. His eyes widen when the red-vested admin approached him. Stopping across the table.

“My name is Tango,” Tango says, flinching, “I- uh-… you don’t have to worry, you are in our server-” slower this time,”-Hermitcraft, I’m an admin here… we won’t hurt you, but can we ask a question, do you remember how are you in or the world?” at this point Tango is berating himself mentally because he can see how shaken the speedrunner is, and how is he not answering. A flap of wings by the entrance and Grian finally arrives, stopping beside Impulse and Bdubs, staring at the both of them clutching a paper bag.

When Tango reunites with his fellow hermits, Grain has laid a set of sweaters and cotton pants on the table in front of Dream. The speedrunner expectantly stares at them.

“You can use them,” it is Bdubs who took the initiative, smiling warmly to the fellow, “We won’t hurt you, I promise,”, they could all feel a weight being freed when Dream slowly nodded at them.


	2. Checking In

It does surprise Xisuma when he is brought to the secret speakeasy. The voidkind didn’t think he would meet Dream this way.

“I think you are going to need either Cleo or Stress,” the Head Admin remarks, noting the various blotches of blood seeping on the bandages of their unannounced visitor, Xisuma opened his admin pane to scan through the sleeping individual,

“There’s nothing wrong currently,” he hums, then checks the history of the code and spots various errors, his lips quivers, “Grian?” Xisuma calls, swiping to share a copy of the code to the watcher, “You might need to call some favors, I believe your friend here is still in danger,”, Grian’s expression darkens, familiar of glitched lines of code, the watcher nods and disappears with a spark of purple, the admin does not bother with their hermit's use of power as it might be as well deemed as urgent. Xisuma shivers internally, it isn’t normal to have a dreamon leave a mark in someone’s code, but the voidkind admin also takes note of their visitor’s circumstances, it isn’t every day you can meet someone like him, just as someone can meet someone like himself and Grian. Xisuma stands up from the bench Bdubs made for bedside and nodded at the said builder.

The blond hermit arrives with a velvet box that seemed to emit some kind of aura similar to its bearer. Grian gives the box to Xisuma, the admin smiles as he thanked the watcher. Inside is a bracelet with various colored gems attached to it, they seem to shine with aura, and the voidkind clasps it secures on Dream’s wrist. Grian’s communicator rang, Bdubs raised his brows,

“It’s Scar, he said he’ll meet us in the sewers,” Grian says,

“Oh! That’s cool!” Impulse smiled, and the two turned to the direction of Dream and Xisuma,

The admin shrugged, “You go have your fun, I’ll stay here with your friend,” Xisuma shrugs, “It’s too hot to work in my gardens anyways,”, the three nodded leaving the speakeasy with their muffled rockets.

* * *

When Dream woke up, the head admin decided to move, checking in mind how their guest shielded his face from the view, the light of the speakeasy, or maybe both, knowing that the man is famous for his porcelain mask with a smiley face.

“My name is Xisuma, I’m the Head Admin of this world,” Xisuma introduces himself, correcting his posture from his seat by the bedside, “It’s alright, you can rest here and stay as long as you want,” the voidkind leaves his seat and went for the chests by the bar, “I’m sorry for the clutter here, this space isn’t made by me, but by the hermits you’ve met earlier if you remember, they are famous for their creations and the chaos they usually leave behind their builds. Would you like some tea or juice?” he grabs a glass and gestured for the barrels, “I can mix the regeneration potion in them, helps you get your strength back,”,

Xisuma takes note of how shaky Dream’s hand are, the head admin makes a list of the many things he has observed from their guest in the short time he’s with him. For one, a dreamon has possessed Dream and for a long time as seen in the man’s glitched codes, said dreamon will also most likely possess Dream again when given the chance, thankfully they have made a band-aid solution to that with the help of their resident watcher. Another is how tattered and torn the fighter is when he was found by Grian and Bdubs, only Technoblade and Illumina can properly fight with their guest, unless if you can count Grian, and there’s no way that Grian has been near to Dream until now, Illumina is also traveling through worlds looking for a challenge since MCC is taking a break, and from the last time Xisuma heard from False, Hbomb told her that Technoblade is taking a break from violence and instead have retired to the snow biome of Dream’s SMP. Xisuma takes another look at their guest, who is curled up on his turtle bed, Xisuma thinks that maybe he’ll need to brew some sleeping potions for Dream when Cleo arrives, they will need to reset some bones and it will be painful, it’s a wonder that the man hasn’t complained about it yet, he should be surely in agony right now, Xisuma frowns.

* * *

Dream is apprehensive of the purple man in front of him that left immediately from his view, he’s different from before, everything is different from before, its cooler, too bright and the ticking of the clock has become a chiming from pieces of what Dreams assumes are glass, the purple man might have been saying something, but the clashing of glasses overpowers the man’s voice. His clothes are also changed, Dream grasps on the wool of the lime sweater he is now wearing, it doesn’t have the number of pockets that his hoodie used to have, but it is softer. The purple man came back with a glass mug, inviting him to drink whatever the content of the mug is. He couldn’t see the purple man’s expression behind the purple-visor and it scares Dream, it also scares Dream how blurry his surroundings are, he can see the dark shade of brown and splotches and green and lime, but despite blinking numerous times his eyes won’t focus. He takes a sip or two from the mug, there’s the familiar saltiness of ghast tears, but whatever the man mixed to make it sweet counteracted the salt. He finishes the mug and curled back inside the blanket because the lights have become too harsh even with the blurred vision.

He can hear something being placed on the table by the side of his bed, the shadow that loomed outside his blanket said, “If you feel more comfortable to write instead you can use this book,” it’s the purple man, “There’s also a local communicator there so you can see what some of us are up to,”, Dream hears footsteps fade away from him until he can hear a piston firing, the purple man is gone.


	3. Chill and Salt of the Sea Breeze

Dream picks up the communicator from the table and pockets it in his pants, he doesn’t know how long it has been since the purple man left him, but it has to be quite a long time already. He stumbles on the dozens of furniture sprawled inside, there was a set of piston earlier and Dream thinks that it may be the way outside.

He almost fell back to his bed if it wasn’t for the table in front of him, his knees practically creaking with the struggle to just get up from the bed. If it were up to Dream he’d really rather not get up anymore, but the curiosity of being in a foreign place with unfamiliar people is stronger, they haven’t hurt him yet and the wait is tormenting him if they plan to break him further Dream need to know when and how. Slowly he reaches the part where most of the footsteps faded away, luckily it is also where the piston sounds came from, the speedrunner finds a lever stuck on the wooden wall. And he pulls.

The first thing that met Dream is the salt and the chill. It’s dark outside but the moon illuminates a blur of aquamarine in the distance, by the sounds it seemed like he is by a port, and true enough the gigantic form of a cargo ships looms by the bay, everything that his eyes can reach is well-developed and urbanized despite being blurred, everything that his eyes can reach is well-developed and urbanized, it’s a concrete jungle and the pollution wafts from where Dream is.

Everything is majestic until Dream looked down, vertigo caught to him that he thought he might break the glass where he pushed himself into, the hard window punished his fragile back and spots came into his vision when his elbows met impact. Dream slid down, there’s no way he can escape this one, it’s like one of the myths that Techno gladly shared with him, the tale of the Minotaur, trapped in a maze and doomed to kill whoever gets in his way.

The midnight skies are far too dark, a freezing chill raining down from Dream’s arm numbing the burning pain. His eyes fell to the horizon, fell to the clear view of the ocean. Then it dawned to him, turning on his back he came face-to-face with the black glass, in front of him there’s freedom. Dream clawed on the glass, far too weak that it won’t shatter on his weight, staggers to the cold breeze and take a step closer to the tip, his feet touching the concrete beneath him except for a toe. Dream braces himself and lets himself fall.

****Dream hit the ground too hard** **

****

* * *

****

Grian didn’t even think about it, he opened his wings to fly out from the sewer, couldn’t hear the shout from Bdubs when he launched himself to the air as he disappeared to the city above them. The NHO member fumbles for his rocket.

“Why is Dream in the server?!” Scar asks, eyes darting from Impulse and Bdubs, his voice caught the latter with his shining eyes,

“Scar!” Bdubs calls, “Use your wings get me to the speakeasy behind Keralis’ tower!”,

“What?!”,

“Your wings! Now! I’ll explain later,”, Scar sighs at this and opens his leathery vex wings, hugging Bdubs under his armpits and launches the both of them to the outside world, the wind whistling behind their ear,

“Oi!” Impulse grabs his rockets from the inventory and follows them upward.

The quartet bumped into the barrier blocks when they arrived at the window where the button to the speakeasy is located, which Grian gladly tore away with violet flames.

“Grian!” Scar reprimanded, but the cry fell on deaf ears as the watcher landed on the ledge facing the concrete where the secret entrance opens, Grian pushed the button as Scar lets Bdubs touch the ground, followed his passenger, and proceeds on making a beeline to their newest hermit.

Inside the speakeasy the chaos is prominent with the Xisuma holding Dream who is trying to shake off the admin, the voidkind’s helmet is knocked off five paces from the both of them, and with that Xisuma’s struggle in breathing is becoming more prominent with every gasp. Bdubs surges to them both followed by Grian, the two of them taking an arm each. And just then Dream suddenly freezes. Xisuma whispers something to Dream, the admin’s breath running out and his eyes turned to Grian, to which the watcher’s gaze turned to the vex who handed a gas mask to Xisuma from a shulker box that indicated that it’s their admin’s. Dream became fixated on their admin, the emerald orbs never leaving the amethyst ones.

“Well, that’s one way to reset your arms,” Impulse grimaces, seeing Dream’s fixed limbs, he knows that it's from the death message earlier that let the speedrunner have his body straightened. Impulse frowns at the idea of throwing themself to death, no matter the fact that their world allows infinite respawns, after all, hitting walls too hard or falling on lava is still a painful way to go, and letting an injury naturally heal is much better than the other alternative. Scar nods beside him, the vex is different after all the times of being used on getting overrun by mobs and having his wings break with exhaustion while still on-flight thus plummeting to his death, but that doesn’t mean the mayor of the shopping district won’t agree with preventing to add another number to his death statistics. The two of them watched at the other three who are trying to calm down the infamous figure from his panic, already half successful the blown-up flailing limbs have become whispers of assurances. Impulse and Scar pulled away from them, to the winds outside of the speakeasy.

“Who was that?” Scar asks, he gestures to the new face inside,

“That’s Dream,” Impulse replies, and Scar’s eye almost popped out of his eye sockets, the redstoner shrugs, “One day, Grian is tunneling for the sewers, then he found Dream, and Bdubs brought them inside my speakeasy. How? I don’t know, maybe Xisuma and Grian can answer more of that,” Impulse takes in the chill of the breeze, a single ray of orange can be seen on the eastern skies.

“I dunno, man, but the guy is obviously hurt, and I heard somethings from X and G talking about possession. Heck! I even caught Bdubs helping Grian out from hyperventilating, I mean at this point we’ve all helped the small guy from being caught on a full flashback, but this time it has more frequent than the usual,”,

In turn, Scar frowned in worry, worry for his winged best friend.

“Do you think Dream has something to do about this?” the cracking rasp on the vex’s voice is prominent, and it took too long for Impulse to reply,

“Maybe,” Impulse breathes, “But Dream cannot control it, for me, it’s more of Grian being reminded of whatever horrid event happened to him,”,

“If we help Dream, then we can prevent Grian from getting those attacks more than usual, right?”,

Impulse nods at that. And the two got inside with the four who are already in it talking in whispers. Scar mentally swears that whatever wounds are in their minds should not bleed anymore if he can help it.


	4. Wide Eyed

Dream did not know what to do with the shulker box in front of him. It was given to him earlier by the people who found him, they were called Hermits, and he remembers Grian, who is one of them, being the one who beat him in Survival Games back in MCC twice. The purple man who is actually the Head Admin of the world he is in introduced himself as Xisuma placed the box in front of Dream when they all met in the speakeasy to eat breakfast before they start making their way in the sewers again, what they are doing in such a disgusting place? Dream doesn’t know, and he does not want to be seen as nosy to the hermits who so far have only helped him. Inside the shulker box is staggering for the speedrunner, it’s a simple shulker box, not dyed, but its contents are a lot to be said, it has a set of diamond armor with elytra, some coupons for a bookstore which another hermit, whose name is Bdubs, explained that is a store for enchanted books, some tools, and a crossbow. Those aren’t the only ones he received, outside the contents of the box the other hermit named Impulse gave him a totem of undying in apology for having only a crossbow in the box since they ran out of bows as those are being used for dispensers in their farms. They left him after, saying that he can mine for diamonds for currency and netherite in the nether if he wanted to upgrade his armor and tools.

Letting his thought churn in his mind. Dream is already aware that he couldn’t depend on his memories, not when unfamiliar faces tell he is a terrible person, not when the nightmare that suffocates him every time he wakes convince him that he is a monster. He opens the box again and grabs the armor, they are not enchanted and cool to touch, the wings on his back felt light but too foreign. The piston opens, and someone that is dressed up like a construction worker enters giggling.

“Oh, hello, sweet face,” the man who entered stopped his giggling, the orange vest is far too bright to Dream’s eyes.

* * *

Keralis was giggling to himself, he knew some of the hermits liked to hang out in his base- Cleo’s for now though, the builder expected as such from his friends as he spotted the button, the news has wings and rumors spread like wildfire, one of those rumors are that Grian is insinuating another group of troublemakers in the world, another is that there is someone new in the server. Apparently, Keralis will be getting proof of the two as he pushed the button on one of the walls of his- Cleo’s skyscrapers that he made albeit still unfinished. He enters the speakeasy that the mayor let slip from his clumsiness, and the wide-eyed builder that is Keralis found a room filled with turtle beds that fashions a cartoon depiction of his face, and another person younger than him that looked like he just came from prison, something he is familiar of being one.

“Oh, hello, sweet face,” he greets the new person in front of him, the new guy visibly flinched, and Keralis mentally cringed, thinking he’s not making any good first impressions. The hermit takes a step back,

“Name’s Keralis, what yours?” he is sure to have his sweetest voice for his guest, or maybe those pesky secret base makers’ guest. A second later his communicator pinged,

<Dream> my name is dream

<Dream> im sorry the orange is too bright

Both messages are in a whisper. Keralis’ eyes widen, even more, realizing his error he takes off the reflector vest, with a smile he apologizes to Dream. For the builder it seems that their new member is still quite sensitive to the new world, Keralis accepts this for he himself has to admit he himself quite had a bad time when he got out of Area 77’s detention center. A bulb seems to light up from Keralis’ crown, as he spots the shulker box and elytra wings that are yet to enchanted.

“Would you like a tour of the world?” Keralis invites, one who misses freedom, craves for something new, and Keralis doubts that this Dream guy has yet to get out of the speakeasy since the armor is not scratched and is also not enchanted.

* * *

Dream had to catch himself before he stepped off the floor and face plant himself again because of the dizziness that came from vertigo. Keralis gave him a stack of rockets letting him take the skies first, the light outside is disorienting at first, Dream wishes it’s night instead, but beggars can’t be choosers and the man that has really big eyes is a bit too happy to be disappointed. Dream launches a rocket before he kissed the concrete soaring higher meeting splashes from the ocean water.

“Dream! Can you follow me?” Keralis calls, “Let’s go to the shopping district first,” graceful with his wings, and the speedrunner lets off another rocket to follow the other man.

Both of them lands by the backside of a giant ravager’s head, Keralis turns to Dream who has landed with an unpleasant sound on the greyscale ground, the latter man pressing on his temples. The builder guides Dream inside the concrete shop that he co-owned with Xisuma, unsure of what has made his companion clutching on his head, it isn’t really that hot in the mushroom biome, then Keralis realizes its the light, remembering how Dream squinted against the bright orange of his vest. Keralis left the younger man for Scar’s clothes shop, hoping for some shades to buy.

Keralis comes back to Dream alongside the district’s gardener, Xisuma. The admin turns to his business partner,

“I came to get some profits, and found him,” Xisuma pointed to Dream who was leaning on the trailer’s outside wall where they usually put their income to split, the man now had a water bottle with him,

“I just thought it would be nice to give our new hermit a tour,” Keralis smiles, giving a box to Dream, “Don’t worry, those are just shades, you gotta pay me back in the future, though,”, Dream nods. The trio stayed there for a while until the sun has lowered enough for the head admin to leave for his gardening chores, then Keralis asked what Dream needed first,

“Building materials? Books? More armor or extra elytra?” the builder hermit asks, and Dream replies to him that he wanted to get enchanted books first in the communicator,

“Then I just know the perfect place,” Keralis exclaims, and Dreams adds that he has coupons for a bookstore. Keralis lets out a giggle


	5. The Shopping District

“So-,” Dream cringed at this broken voice, his sudden utterance made Keralis turn to him with a snap that also made the former jumped, “-hat are the rules?” he continued,

“You can actually speak?” Keralis eyes widen, Dream nodded his throat a bit scratchy, the wide-eyed hermit still leads through the path though, in front of them is a floating mansion made of glass and framed with dark wood, inside, Dream can see blots of roses bushes, and chests lined, a simple and small sandy garden in the center of the building, he caught himself as he heard Keralis speak once again,

“Well, we have the usual, don’t steal, and grief,” the hermit said, “They are loosely enforced anyway, since we have the usual prankage on-going, like the speakeasy that you’re in,” Keralis leaned on him, eyes shining in eagerness, “Do you know where are their other bases in my city?”, Dream had to take a step back from the builder,

“Ah- I only- I did not-!” the shades almost fell in Dream’s panic, Keralis waved at him in apology,

“It’s alright, the city’s not mine now anyway,” a sob in Keralis’ tone, “It’s Cleo’s problem now,” a light chuckle.

“This is the German coast guard speaking, what are you sinthking about?” Keralis observed the shaded emerald eyes, both of them in the middle of the open-spaced quartz shop of Cub,

“H-how did you do that?” Dream pointed at the crystals floating above the poles that edged on the corners of the shop,

“Oh, that? Cub owns this shop, he moved some crystals from the End to here, and we’re currently in zero, zero, so the crystals pointed up there, you should see his base- which is Doc’s base at the moment, his pyramid has two walls of ancient debris,”,

“-hat?!”,

“Vexes, I mean I understand how they love to brag their wealth and all that,” he shrugged, “Come one let’s go use those coupons of yours,”,

Dream left the pieces of coupons inside the barrels of enchanted books as Keralis disappeared to the other store attached to the bookstore, with a clang from the anvil and the very first enchantment he made in this world is now embedded in his axe, he remembers his axe back in his SMP, names “Nightmare”, the weapon sure did became a source of night terrors of the people of his world, he readies another book to add the spells that are cast in the diamond axe. Dream frowned, of course, he doesn’t have enough mana to make it, a flap of wings descended on the store, the glow of violet folded revealing a head of dirty blond and solid red.

“Hi, Dream,” he recognized the voice as of Grian’s,

“Uh-,”,

“Glad to see you out of the speakeasy,”, Dream couldn’t see the smile from the watcher, “What do you have there?”,

“Just some enchanting,” Dream kept the books in his inventory, “I don’t have enough, though,”,

“Can I help?” Grian opens his hand to Dream, reluctantly Dream opens his inventory again,

“It’s al-right, I’ll just grind for the experience,”,

“Alright then, also, nice shades,” Grian turns to the barrels in the bookstore, Dream goes for the ender chest storing most of his items along with the diamonds that are given to him. Grian leaves with a gust of wind from his wings.

_Wings_

* * *

When Keralis finally came back, he handed a steamy mushroom soup to Dream,

“I hope you like it,” the wide-eyed hermit munched on a cookie he has in hand, “I gotta go to an appointment with Bubbles, wanna come?,”,

Dream shakes his head, “I have to get some experience,”,

“There’s a button in the portal under the city hall, it's hard to spot, but it will do,”,

Dream nods,

“I can help you there, I’m going to take the subway to the Aque town anyway for my appointment,”,

“Aque Town?”,

“Scar’s other city here, it’s smaller, but it’s developing alright,”,

Dream nods once again.

* * *

Dream found the button which is now actually an open machine and cringed as flying bottles of enchanting cracked on the floor, orbs of power seeping to his body as a tingle of somewhat static electricity filled him, a common thing to feel whenever a mob or player is killed, but the machine made the tinge stronger with mana being basically showered with just a press of the button. He hurries back to the bookstore where he last saw an anvil.

He stares at the axe on the anvil, he just finished casting all enchantments necessary for a weapon, the axe is still unnamed. Dream stops, thinking of ways to prevent him from hurting anyone in this server, flashes of obsidian, blond hair, and netherite axe. The shine of diamond and he breathes forgetting when did he stop doing it. He names the diamond axe “Daydream”.

A crunch of dirt from the direction of the entrance to the bookstore, the purple man, Xisuma, the Head Admin of Hermitcraft.

“Y-you know something right?” Dream asks the velvet-toned man, his hand falling from the axe on the anvil to his side.

Xisuma nods, “Many of us have known what you’ve done in your server,” the admin admits, “Why don’t we go somewhere private?”.


	6. Xisuma's Office

Their walk to the “private place” has been a blur for Dream, he was only pulled back to reality when Xisuma gestured him to be seated in front of his office desk. When the head admin has settled on his seat behind the desk Dream notes the entirety of Xisuma’s place, the room is walled with glass, and outside is filled with greenery, on the desk are a pile of files, some tools, and a placard that says “Xisuma, Gardener/Groundskeeper”. Dream catches Xisuma’s stare on his wrist, in a bout of instinct the former placed his other hand on his wrist, that’s when Dream felt bumps of beads under his long sleeve, his emerald eyes widen at the foreign object on his hand.

“I suppose you never asked questions,” the head admin exhales, pulling a latch under his chin and removing his helmet, “So, did, we,”, under the headgear revealed the lavender skin of a voidkind, Xisuma’s face showing a prominent X scar passing on both his eyes, cheeks and nose. He opened one of his drawers under the desk, and Dream tensed in anticipation, he’s entirely defenseless in this place and he may be an admin, but this isn’t his world and thus does not have authority in. And Xisuma does, and Xisuma is one of the voidkinds that many thought are nothing but just part of the myths.

Instead, Xisuma pulled an oxygen mask from his storage, taking a full breath when it is secured on his face.

“Why don’t examine the bracelet around your wrist,” Xisuma gestures at Dream’s wrist, he has to admit that he has been neglectful of the fact that Dream is in the world, to be fair it isn’t only him who did not have the man in front of him in mind, if Keralis did not basically pull Dream to the shopping district and show him around, the lot of them would have happily continued on their projects and let the man be by himself, which is alright, but also the Hermitcraft world can be overwhelming to most. And he still has some specific things to ask of and explain of.

Dream rolls up his sleeve and finds a bracelet with lime green and black beads, some galactic inscribed to it glowing with violet light.

“Do you remember anything from your server?” Xisuma asks,

Dream was silent for a long time, eyes darting in different directions as if the vines and the shine on the glass can provide him a hint of an answer, rubbing on the bead and feeling the gaps of where the characters are embedded.

“I’m… not sure, to be ho-nest,” he finally replies, “Most are like a blur-” a block of obsidian innocently sits on the corner of the office just behind the head admin, “It’s my fault!” Dream croaks, as the heat of the lava, met his skin, and a chilling drop of obsidian tears crept on his nape-

“DREAM!” Xisuma tries to call for the frozen man whose eyes just turned dull.

* * *

_The whisper is back again, Dream recognizes this voice, it has always been with him, a friend, a confidante, a companion when no one else can, when everyone left him for something or someone else. And Dream is alone again._

_The lava in front of him is as scorching as ever, and it does not help that his walls are all basically black, the glowstone on two corners are not helping to try to counter the darkness that surrounds him, not the harsh light that is from them and the curtain of liquid fire. Dream knows why he’s here, he messed up big time. He can sense in the back of his mind the ever-presence that’s nagging him since he-knows-not-when._

“What kind of an admin could not control its constituents? A weak one,” _the whisper says, at first it has been helpful so he did not mind, he thought maybe it's his inner critic seeing how much of a clusterfuck his SMP has become, then unknowingly and gradually it became first, insinuations became temptations, suggestions became actions, all for a supposed good reason but with poor execution. The next he knew, he’s trapped, baited himself on a pit he made himself._

_His surroundings never change, obsidian, lava, blank, rinse and repeat. What hurt more is realizing what he has done._ Almost killing Tubbo, and isolating Tommy from his friends and family, _preying on how easy they could be nudged on the side that may lead to their demise, screw the server’s safety!_

 _“_ They are but a nuisance, _” it whispers, the chill on his breath creeps on Dream’s spine, giving him goosebumps, the glow on his weapons seems more unusually in a deeper shade of violet before it was confiscated off of him,_

 _“_ If you knew how to properly manage your world, this wouldn’t happened, _”, the dark walls are so suffocating, his gut burns with pain, the lights are so bright, and the smell-_

It smells like, Dream does not know where this smell is from. And the glittering glass ceiling greets him.

* * *

Xisuma lays Dream on the cot in his office, better get the man on a safer corner to avoid any more harm that could happen, then grabs an incense that he sometimes uses to calm himself or anyone that visits this humbler office of his. He slumps back on his chair behind the desk, waiting for the young man to stir again, hopefully not as violent as when he threw himself off of the floor of the speakeasy, that night has become tense, especially since most hermits saw the notification, and news to other worlds may or may not have spread, Dream did quite a ruckus in his server after all. But the Hermitcraft head admin knows it's not entirely Dream’s fault, he knows because he was also once in Dream’s shoes, thankfully though, the Hermits are a resilient bunch. Xisuma traces his bracelet with black, red, and forest green beads with the same galactic characters that glowed violet. Maybe a cup of tea will settle his nerves.

The admin sets his tea back on a small plate on his desk, his guest is finally back to the real world. Dried up tears shining on both of Dream’s cheeks, which he promptly wiped away.

“First, Dream, I would like to assure you first, that whatever you’ve done in your server,” Xisuma starts, “Is not entirely your fault,” his amethyst eyes staring straight to Dream’s emerald ones, “You were possessed,” the admin raises his cup, “Would you like some tea,”, Dream shook his head, he’s more of a coffee type of person,

“Tell me, Dream,” the kiss of the cup’s bottom to the plate is chiming, “What is your true desire for your server?”.


	7. A Memory of Grey

Dream could not answer Xisuma’s question, his true answer would have sounded like a lie on his tongue.

 _Meow._

The two turned to the entrance where the sound came from. Jellie, Scar’s cat pawed their way to the two, jumped on Dream’s lap, nuzzling and purring spreading fur on his sweater. Dream runs his calloused hand on the cat’s spine, and Jellie curved its spine to follow the limb that is giving the cat what it wanted.

The younger admin turns to the voidkind, eyes shining in uncertainty. Xisuma just lets him be, the cat seemed to be enjoying it.

“How can you say it like that?” emerald eyes turn on grey fur, the cat reminds him of the one that got in his cell when Tommy last visited-

_A crushed cat’s skull on the top of a chest, another skull on the wall facing it. Every part of Dream numb with cold despite the lava, despite the sweat tracing on his temple._ Tommy’s dead _, the teen lying on the floor, there’s blood on Dream’s hands. Tommy also killed the cat, and he killed Tommy._

 _“_ You finally have proven yourself, and you will prove yourself again, Administrator _,” it whispers._

Dream turns to the reality in front of him, the head admin of the world he is in, and a cat that is very much alive purring on his lap.

“Dream,” Xisuma calls, “Did you know that you were possessed?”,

The younger admin nods, “But, I wanted to do it… nonetheless,”,

Xisuma leans back on his chair, “Did you really, Dream?”,

“ _Yes, and the only regret I have_ ,” Dream thinks, green eyes shone with tears, “ _Is failing to make sure that they will think I’m evil enough for them take my last life instead of sticking me inside my own prison_ ,”.

Xisuma heard that and watched as Dream gently let Jellie down on the floor, the cat deciding that nothing is interesting inside the office left, Dream also followed,

“You should scout for a vacant space to start a starter base,” the head admin says, not sure if the younger man heard it.

Dream stayed for a while rubbing the grey cat’s tummy, then the back of its ears. Jellie purred louder that Dream stayed much longer than he thought, when he left the City Hall, the sun is still high, but a little bit more to the west already. Emerald eyes stared longingly at the cat, before opening his wings to fly away from the developed mushroom biome.

* * *

Dream flew until his elytra broke, he wasn’t high enough to plummet to his death, but he still landed with a painful thud. The stars are starting to fill up the night skies, at first Dream thought that making a small dirt hut would do for now, until he realized how cramped the space inside, in the end, he chooses the treetops, thankfully he’s near a dark oak forest. Settling on a red mushroom cap, the young admin of a different server stares at the twinkling blots of light, his eyes are now forever damaged, he realizes. He is also thankful for the silence in his brain, but can’t help himself but worry when those whispers will come back. The breeze feels nice, the chill is so different from the heat inside solitary. With the calmness of his surroundings, Dream lets his thought wander, searching for scraps of memories that aren’t corrupted.

_The sun is shining that day, Dream welcoming the new person who made his server as a homeworld. The admin greeting a sheep hybrid in pirate clothing, but unlike Schlatt her wool is a vibration transition of hues._

_“Welcome to Dream SMP,” Dream smiles, the voice in his head humming with satisfaction, the Revolution war just ended back then, the new inhabitant called herself Captain Puffy, and Dream let her roam around the world, sometimes following her, there’s just something nice about the woman, and somehow they grew close together until Captain Puffy affectionately called him her “duckling”._

_When she last saw her, he was torn, but at the same time fine with it, the server needed someone to blame, and he needed someone to get rid of himself._

A familiar wide-eyed hermit greeted him on his treetop.

“Good morning, Sweet face!” smiled Keralis, Dream almost collided with the hermit’s forehead when he jolted himself to a sitting position. The hermit however jerked backward and fell off the treetop, and hit the ground with a crash,

“Not my face!”, he can hear Keralis whine and a wisp of rockets approaching him from above. A zombie lady dressed up as a sailor lands two trees away from him.

“Did you see Keralis nearby?” she asks, Dream points downward, and the lady jumps down to the forest floor, “Name’s Cleo! Nice to see you,”,

“Keralis! Why did you trap you- I mean my office?”,

“What?! I did not!” Keralis answered defensively, and Cleo undeniably giggled, Dream can hear a light smack from where the two are,

“You almost gave me a heart attack! Hopefully, I did not die,” there’s a grin on her face,

“I swear, Cleo! I did not trap my base!”,

“My base, Keralis, my base,” she corrects, and a harrumph from the male hermit.

“One day, Cleo, I swear one day, I will have my diamond office back,”,

“Oh, shush you, you love me adding more armor stand magic in your base, admit it,”,

“Just don’t blow it up, Cleo,”,

“What?! Me? I would never,”,

“The ravager in the zoo says otherwise,”,

“It’s Joe who put it there,”,

Their conversation ended with a peal of light-hearted laughter,

“How about we invite the stranger guy for breakfast?” Cleo asks, Keralis gathers his rockets and launches himself to the treetops,

“Dream?” he looks at the vast green, “Why don’t we have breakfast?”,

But Dream wasn’t there anymore.

“Keralis? Did you just call the new guy “Dream”?” Cleo asks, following her fellow hermit on the tree, Keralis nodded,

“You know, he’s kinda wanted right?”.


	8. Idiot Savants

Dream stares at the ocean waters below the boat he found by one of the coasts he ended up in, the sun beating down heat that is much more welcome than that of the lava curtain he grew accustomed to these past months. The reflection of light from the waters and its calmness seemed to affect him, as Dream starts to let his thoughts be rowed with the waves that rumble under his boat, realizing the peace of this world. He remembers the economic system that is established in the mushroom biome they developed with buildings looming with detail, the mockery of blocks on a gigantic scale, the resources that just laid there to be traded with. Once upon a time, Dream wished something like that for his world, to be somewhere people can showcase their ingenious and creativity, like how Philza worked hard in his worlds to leave it with legends and myths that “tore” on its realms.

_“What is your true desire for your server?”_ , Dream remembers what this world’s Head Admin asked him,

The warrior groans, finding an approaching headache after staring to much at the bright ripples of the ocean, fidgeting on the bracelet that he really didn’t get what’s the purpose for. A thud shook him, tearing his gaze away from the liquid, and to the grey on the stone, blinking a couple of times to erase the cyan orb that burned to his vision, Dream finds a new view to look at, where the waves took him. A wooden mansion made of spruce and stone, cleanly cut in half, there’s a blur of pink curtains from the first floor, a mess of iron golems sprawling in front of him but no villagers can be seen nearby.

A rapidly approaching set of footsteps made Dream apprehensive of his surroundings, shaking the boat trying to get out of it to make it to much more stable land. A flash of green skin came out of a two by two block cave, a sharp of a trident poking from the entrance, and revealed a creeper hybrid that turned a red gaze to an unmasked man, both of them froze like deer caught in the headlight. Unfortunately for Dream, one of his feet is floating on the space between hard rock and an unstable rocking floater, and he fell on the water.

The pair of green and grey hands pull Dream up to the surface.

“You okay, kiddo?” the creeper asks, voice gravelly and rough with an accent, Dream feels the bite of cold from metal, that is the right hand of the creeper, he also spots that half of the creeper’s skull is covered with metal, “How about we get you to dry land first and change your clothes, you’re soaking wet,”,

The creeper that introduced himself as Doc M and led a shivering Dream to the half mansion, letting the young man change inside the wardrobe room that is shockingly pink filled with ruined lab coats, it took him a while until he saw a grey long-sleeved turtleneck, fit but longer, and seeing how tall the creeper doctor, Dream does not mind.

He got out of the wardrobe a bit later than he could have wanted to, spotting Doc sipping on a mug of dark liquid, his hand fashioning another bracelet with black and green beads, the greens being a much more dark shade than that of his.

“Take a seat, do you want coffee? Tea? Or alcohol?” the doctor asks, “I have some in the barrel if you want,”, Dream mentally cringes at the trident that is leaning beside the creeper, but finds comfort in how different his voice from the Warden’s. Dream concentrates on the metallic glint of the doctor’s skull,

“-alcohol?” he asks bewildered, Dream isn’t new to the stuff, having Schlatt in the server for a short while, but the idea of it still puzzles the young man,

The doctor nods catching the younger man’s tone, “Alcohol can help sometimes, and they’re made locally by Joe,” he gestures to the direction of a carved goat head mountain, “Just over the Goatmother’s head is Joe’s winery,” he takes a sip on his mug, “But at the moment, I have things to do outside this world, so my supply is a bit low, I also need to be alert for my business outside this server anyway” there’s a warm smile leaking from behind the mug.

“I gotta go,” Dream averted his eyes from Doc, Doc M who looks for too similar to Sa- the Warden, the creeper nods,

“Okay, then,” the doctor got up from his couch, “I’m not supposed to be here either way-” a light chuckle, “I should also get going before Cub catches me here,” the creeper steps to the edge of the first floor, jumped down then opened his wings igniting a rocket to soar up.

Dream skips the stairs and rolls on the grass, he feels like he entered a place where he shouldn’t be, admittedly he’s already feeling that way when he first woke up, the hermits are far too kind, too generous, too soft, nothing like the grim and roughness of what his SMP has become, given that he’s quite a large contributor for why it’s that like that now,

“ _I really am not supposed to be in here_ ,” Dream thought, as he went back to his boat as his wings are still ruined, hurriedly leaving the coast Dream kept on rowing until he found himself in the middle of nowhere, with ocean everywhere, the heat of the sun finally fading into orange light.

The next day, his boat finds them on the beach of bright-colored towers, on the other side of the ocean the mushroom biome looms, another flourishing city being made. A glint of something metal touched his neck drawing a little blood, Dream turn up to see a crown of blonde hair of a lady, the starling blue eyes sharp and achingly familiar,

“Who are you and how did you get in here, when I did not hear anything about someone joining the server?” she asks, another man joins them, one who wears a red checkered long-sleeve,

“False?” the person asks, then he blinks at Dream, even rubbing his eyes, “Dream?” this one with a higher pitch of tone,

Dream froze,

“Aren’t you supposed to be in Pandora, Dream?” the man continues, “How did you get in here?”,

Dream couldn’t find himself to answer, as the memories from the vault haunted his mind, the loneliness of solitary and the smell of blood and burned flesh, the vomiting as he felt something he did not know that was of inside him tear itself away from himself,

“Falsie, I gotta go, I need to tell Sam about this,” and the man disappears,

[Hbomb94 left the game]

“H, wait-!” False cries, but H is long gone,

Dream realizes the doom that dawns on him.


	9. Author's Note

Hello Petra here ^_^

If you're here and baffled about the updates that happened earlier, it's because I decided to put all the earlier parts of the series to one work, to make it more neat and clean.  
Now if, you're asking about if this work will be continued.... It might be... as of now, I'm just in the middle of completing some of the responsibilities I have IRL, I will really come back to the works I have on-going maybe next Monday onwards of the week, which means stay tuned for updates about the "Redeeming Dream", "He Who is Abandoned", "Watching and Dreaming", and this series ,"His Arrival" which will have its name changed if I successfully remember to do so XP

So see ya soon! Ciao :P

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos and Comments are highly encouraged!!!


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